AT THE CENTER

For the past 18 years the United States has been embroiled in a seemingly endless war in Afghanistan that has taken the lives of over 100,000 people. In December 2018, President Trump announced plans for a withdrawal of about 7,000 troops from the country, sparking debate on the effects such a move would have on

“Unwilling to accept sunk costs, we keep pouring men, women and money into a war [in Afghanistan] that is unwinnable, even on our increasingly vague terms of victory. ‘Declare defeat and go home’ may not be politically palatable, even in an America that last won a war in 1991."

“The threat to the liberal order comes not from political shifts within democratic societies from liberal to conservative parties; that’s the normal cycle of democratic politics. It comes from resurgent autocrats in Russia, China, North Korea and Iran who do not tolerate such political shifts. Authoritarianism, not nationalism, poses the real threat to the liberal order.”

“Resolution of the Korean issues and North Korea’s threat is important, but it must be addressed in the context of the greater situation. North Korea is not the most important thing. Our interests and the security of our allies and friends are the most important.”

“Asia’s greatest challenge today is not a nuclear Pyongyang armed with missiles that can hit most parts of the planet, but something far more complex: a People’s Republic of China that is out of space to grow economically, and has in fact peaked. The ramifications of this fact could be profound, and indeed reorder our thinking of global politics not just in the Asia-Pacific, but on a global scale.”

“The most important summits between leaders in Washington and Moscow—during the Nixon and Reagan administrations—took place precisely when the two governments recognized the dangers of inveterate mutual hostility and sought to limit them.”

“If Moscow views its social-media campaign as a defensive response to American meddling in Russian politics, then it might see little to gain and much to lose by giving up this activity without getting reciprocal U.S. concessions. Putin often recalls occasions when he made unilateral concessions to the United States, such as closing Russia’s intelligence collection site in Cuba and withdrawing from its naval facility in Vietnam in 2001, without gaining anything in return.”

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For the past 18 years the United States has been embroiled in a seemingly endless war in Afghanistan that has taken the lives of over 100,000 people. In December 2018, President Trump announced plans for a withdrawal of about 7,000 troops from the country, sparking debate on the effects such a move would have on